


Souvenirs

by BabyDarling



Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Gen, M/M, the others are there too but they didn't play that big of a role so i didn't tag them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 14:03:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4307886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyDarling/pseuds/BabyDarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Our worlds so far apart<br/>Until we meet do not start<br/>And should one world end, well, then<br/>The other must hope<br/>For a way to begin again</p>
            </blockquote>





	Souvenirs

They both had demanding jobs, so they don't get to see each other as much as they wanted to. It got tiring and a little lonely if they were honest. The thought of trying to be just friends again had passed both their minds but it made them recoil almost physically. No, that one really wasn't going to happen ever. Even if this wasn't their ideal situation they both understood that the other was happy with their jobs and didn't want to risk potential resentment. And they were still fairly young, not as young as they used to be, but they had the time to stay as they were for a while longer before one or both of them decided to do something else or retire so they could be with each other more often.

Besides, when they were with each other it made up for everything. Being able to touch and hold each other again really made them feel like they were home. Most of the time when they were together again for however long they'd just lay down somewhere in each other's arms and not let go, lazily making out or falling asleep. Then when they hard to part again one of them would take a souvenir.

  

* * *

  

"No, Tony-" he was shut up when Tony crashed his lips against his again, he pulled away, "Tony I have to go now or I'll miss my plane." 

"Yah yah just," he pulled him back for another kiss, "Think of this as a souvenir."

 Rhodey cocked an eyebrow at him and smiled, "Really, Tones? I'm not even gonna be gone that long."

 "Shut up, go catch your plane then." Tony pouted.

 He laughed and gave another quick kiss before, basically, running out of the apartment.

 

* * *

  

Tony was slowly failing to keep his emotions under check. This would be the first time they'd be separated for more than just a few months. It was the first time Rhodey would even be leaving the country that for a reason other than a vacation with Tony.

Rhodey tightened his arms around his partner, "Yah, Tony, I promise I'll come back."

"You sure I can't take you to the airport, honey bear?"

He laughed a little and pulled back from Tony, "We both know Stane wouldn't appreciate you ditching him again."

The brunet rolled his eyes, "He can handle...wait a minute what is that on your dog tags?"

He reached out for them but Rhodey stepped back and picked up his bag while Tony took a few more steps toward him, "A souvenir. After all I have to make sure you get back your mom's wedding ring right?"

Tony raised an eyebrow and smiled but there was still a small underscore of worry in his voice, "You don't think people are going ask questions about that hanging from your neck?" 

"I'll just make up some lie." He shrugged.

  

* * *

 

Pepper yelped when the dog almost ran her over. She glared at the mutt then looked up when she heard Tony running up to her and sliding to a stop. The dog barked at him and ran around them.

"That thing is worse than you. I thought his mom usually looked after her." Pepper said straightening out her skirt.

"Yah, she does, but I took her this time." The dog barked again and went to leap at him, "No you dummy, didn't you learn that that puts you in time out-" she ignored his warning and toppled him over.

The redhead sighed and watched the dog lick at her boss's face, "I have no idea why you took that dog, you can barely keep care of yourself...anyway, when you're done playing with her you have papers to sign." 

 

* * *

 

 

"Hey, what's that?"

Rhodey looked up to see Sam sitting down beside him, "Oh, just some new tech I took from a friend." He moved the tech so that the blond could see the Stark Logo on the side.

He laughed, "You mean you stole another beta model from Tony."

 

 

* * *

 

Tony was laying down half on top of Rhodey. It had been a, for lack of a better word, shitty year for them. Tony's business partner-hell, his surrogate father-had been imprisoned for not only embezzling but for selling weapons to terrorists. Not to mention he had hired someone to try and take Tony out. Naturally this lead to him wanting his company to do other things and pull out of the weapons business. Which prompted his and Rhodey's fight and an almost split up. Then there was Tony's heart attack and whole load of even more awful stuff in between all that.  

This was one of the first times it felt like either could really relax this year. Rhodey felt Tony take a breath. He closed his eyes and smiled, he knew there was no way the brunet would stay quiet for much longer.

"So, I got a phone call from Steve the other day."

"Yah?" 

"He said that Bucky practically shouted their relationship from the rooftops almost immediately after Don't Ask, Don't Tell got repealed. Said the man hasn't lost a fight yet."

Rhodey laughed, "Sounds like Cap's recklessness is finally rubbing off on him after all those years."

"Mhm..."

There was some silence before Tony started moving off Tony and Rhodey stopped him, "Hey where you going?"

Tony wiggled his way out from Rhodey's arms and pointed a finger at him, "Stay for just a moment."

He raised an eyebrow and watched as the man hurried out of the room. There was really no telling what that man was trying to do this time. Most likely, it had to be some type of completely unnecessary grand gesture to make up for the year. Or something to try and match their friend's enthusiastic reaction. Hopefully, it wouldn't be something too wild.

Rhodey jumped a little when the brunet came back and leaned over the couch, holding-"Tony...?"

"I know it's not legal yet here but I just really wanted to do something. And I know you won't do the same thing as Bucky and you _and_ Pepper would tie me down if I tried. So, I thought...you don't have to wear it or anything if you don't want to right now, I guess. I won't make a big deal out of it. I just-if even after this shitty year you haven't left me I think we're pretty much in this together for the long run so when it does become legal we already have the rings and-" Tony took a breath and Rhodey clapped his hand over his mouth so he could actually get a word in.

Rhodey had a moment of regret when the man gave him a look that said he was already thinking he screwed up and this wasn't something Rhodey thought was a good idea and that he screwed up. It still worried him how fast Tony was able to backtrack on things when he saw how he was already changing his expression to something more neutral.

"Are you gonna hand it over so I can actually see the ring or no?" Tony looked surprised when Rhodey uncovered his mouth.

"Uh, yah, here." He opened the small box and handed it over to him.

Rhodey took the one of the rings out of the box and held it between his fingers, "Even had them engraved?" He smiled when reading what it said on the inside, Tony nodded and watched as Rhodey put the ring on and took out the other holding it out to him. 

 

* * *

 

When they had to part again and they had forgotten to steal something from one another like they normally do Tony said to just consider the ring as a souvenir this time, only it was one he would get to keep rather than returning it when they met up again. Later when Rhodey was sitting and thinking about all the souvenirs they had taken from one another over the years he admitted to himself that the ring was the best obviously. Second best, as silly as it was, was Tony's parting kisses the first time they were separated. 

As the time passed, they continued with their tradition of taking souvenirs from one another. Then gay marriage was legalized in California and they next time they had a while to themselves they got married. They saved their vows for when they had to be apart again and gave them to each other in envelopes. Rhodey made sure to keep Tony's vows on him at all times and Tony had Rhodey's framed in his lab. Their friends thought it was adorable and made sure to tell them at every opportunity. 

When Bucky was medically discharged Steve decided to not renew his contract to be with him. It was at that point Rhodey wondered if he should retire too when his contract ends. He wondered if he'd get as fidgety as Steve has been getting. Then he thought that it shouldn't really matter. No matter how fidgety Steve seemed to get he looked really happy to be with Bucky, it was just that he didn't know what to do with himself yet. He watched Tony start to put together the prosthetic design he was working on and decided he would surprise him. 

 

* * *

 

It was six months until his contract expired when Natasha cornered him at a dinner party for all their friends, "When you get out there's a kid that Tony writes to a lot."

"What?"

"You know him, he's a philanthropist and a kid wrote to him to thank him for what he did. Apparently, the orphanage the kid was in was about to be shut down and he helped out." She took a piece of paper out of her pocket and held it out to him, "His name is Edwin, if Tony likes him so much you probably will too."

"Woah, hold on one second, firstly how do you know I'm not signing back up and secondly, Tony's always said he doesn't want kids and just because you and Clint decided to have a bunch of rugrats doesn't mean you should be-"

Natasha gave him that look that she gives people a lot when she thinks someone is being stupid, "Oh please, the only one who hasn't guessed what you're going to do is Tony and he hasn't said that in a long time, Jim."

She nodded her head over to the man in question. Tony was holding baby Laura in one arm and drawing with his free hand with Nathaniel. He kept looking over and smiling at Lila and Cooper who were playing with the dog they got after Rhodey's died, whose name was Butterpaws despite his protesting. The adopted twins, Pietro and Wanda were playing with the new Stark tablets that Tony had brought them. Rhodey realized Natasha was right, Tony hadn't said that in a long time.

"You want this now?" Natasha said holding out the paper again, he looked at Tony and the kids a moment more before taking it. 

 

* * *

 

It was three months until his contract expired when he took the time to go meet Edwin in person while Tony was away for work. He was surprised to be greeted by a tall, burly guy with what sounded like an accent from one of the Nordic countries. He didn't really look the part.

"Hello, friend, what can I do for you today?" On second thought, the guy reminded him of a puppy.

"Well, I'm here to see someone, his name is Edwin."

"Ah! You must be Mr. Rhodes. Edwin told me you would be coming soon. Brother!"

A man walked in from another room holding a a first aid kit with a little girl in tow, he looked like he belonged here less than the beefcake in front of him.  Rhodey mentally shrugged, remembering you can't really judge people by their looks. But he couldn't stop himself from judging that, by their looks, the two brothers weren't related and that maybe that was why these two unexpecting people worked here. 

"You must bring Edwin down, Mr. Rhodes has come to see him." The blond said, his brother looked Rhodey up and down then handed the blond the first aid kit.

"It's about time one of them come instead of just writing letters." The man sent a glare at him and exited the space.

The blond gave Rhodey a sheepish smile while kneeling down to the little girl, "My brother is very passionate about the little ones."

He rubbed the back of his head and laughed a little, "It's fine, he's right anyway."

After the man was done bandaging the little girl she left and almost immediately after a boy came running through the door. He skidded to stop in front of Rhodey and smiled up at him. Rhodey smiled back.

  

* * *

 

Rhodey's contract officially expired in a week. He was sitting in their kitchen with the adoption papers in front of him. He took his phone out of his pocket when it started ringing not bothering to check thee caller ID because he already knew this ringtone.

"Hey, Tones. What's up?"

"I'm just calling to say I'll be home later than I thought I'd be, the traffic's pretty bad today. Wait, hold on...Happy try turning here...anyway what are you up to right now?"

"I'm just waiting for you. Oh, I also ordered that movie Bruce was recommending us the other day."

"Jurassic World? It's supposed to be set after the Jurassic Park movies right? I really don't understand why if the first time it ended up so horribly why they'd-"

Rhodey started to laugh, "Wait until we've seen the movie to start over analyzing it."

"Ugh, fine."

Rhodey laughed some more until he heard Tony swear and the sound of a crash followed soon after, he swore his heart was stopping, "Tony?"

The sounds that followed after froze him in his spot. He thought he heard someone scream then cut off suddenly. Then the phone cut off. 

 

* * *

 

Rhodey's contract has expired and it's the day of Tony's funeral. It felt like there were too many people here. Too many cameras. From the way some of his friend's were looking at the strangers they feel the same way. Edwin stood beside him, holding his hand, the blond orphanage worker stood behind them. He had sat at the kitchen counter staring at the papers everyday until signing them the day before. It was probably an awful time but they both lost him so they should mourn together as the family Tony had likely wanted.

He fiddled with his ring while they lowered Tony into the ground and thought about the engraving on it. The engravings on both of their rings.  _What an awful last souvenir to take_ , he thought, _you're not supposed to take something like that. At least not so soon._

 

_'My true love, my heart.'_


End file.
